Quote Originally Posted by Crankin View Post
Eofelis, when we went to the graduation at Mesa State last year, I was one of those people who had never heard of the Colorado National Monument. We only got to do some hiking, but my former exchange student "son" trained there all of the time. We got to see him take team pictures up there one day, when we happened to be driving by and saw him riding toward the monument.
That part in the tunnel looks a little scary, though.
The name "Colorado National Monument" doesn't really give many clues as to what kind of area, magnificent red rock canyons, it really is. Years ago when I first drove through the Grand Junction area on the interstate I saw the signs for it and assumed it was just some sort of roadside marker for the Colorado River, or something like that. Unimpressed, I kept on driving.

Many other people also think this way. There has been some push to rename it to a National Park that might draw in more visitors.


The tunnel on the east side is a long uphill tunnel and it scares me sometimes. Even though we have to have a red blinky tail light on our bikes I don't feel very safe in there. I either wait at the tunnel entrance for a long break in the car traffic and them sprint through the tunnel (going anaerobic!); or on days that there is a lot of car traffic I motion a vehicle to stop and ask them if they will follow me through the tunnel for a bit of protection. People are happy to help me out for a few minutes there. Going the other way, downhill, that tunnel doesn't bother me much. I do get a bit of vertigo cruising along in the dark in there. The west side has two short tunnels and they don't bother me at all, though the pavement in them is quite bumpy.